IS 



flavour, suddenly appearing on the leaves of plants, was asserted to 

 stop their growth and act injuriously on the plants. Such leaves were 

 spoken of as " Foglie ammanate " (leaves affected by manna). They 

 used a similar term of grapes which have acquired a peculiar flavour 

 when covered with the same substance as " Vino ammanato." 



He would take next the vegetable productions described as 

 Manna. On this latter subject there were many writers, but one of 

 them, Buckhardt, in " Notes on the Bedouins and Waliabys," when 

 speaking of Wady-el-Shiekh, to the north of Mt. Serbel, says, " In 

 many parts it was thickly overgrown with the tamarisk or tarfa. It is 

 from this tarfa that the manna is obtained ; and it is very strange that 

 the fact should have remained unknown in Europe till M. Seetzin 

 mentioned it in a brief notice of his tour to Sinai, published in the 

 Mines de V Orient. This substance is called by the Arabs Mann, and 

 accurately resembles the description of the Manna given in Scripture. 

 In the month of June it drops from the thorns of the tamarisk upon 

 the fallen twigs, leaves, and thorns, which always cover the ground 

 beneath the tree in the natural state ; the Manna is collected before 

 sunrise, when it is coagulated, but it dissolves as soon as the sun shines 

 upon it. The Arabs clear away the leaves, dirt, &c., which adhere to 

 it, boil it, strain it through a coarse piece of cloth, and put it into 

 leathern skins ; in this way they preserv^e it till the following year, and 

 use it, as they do honey, to pour over their unleavened bread, or to dip 

 their bread into. I could not learn that they ever made it into cakes 

 or loaves. The Manna is found only in years when copious rains 

 have fallen ; sometimes it is not produced at all. I saw none of it 

 among the Arabs, but I obtained a piece of last year's produce at the 

 Convent, where, having been kept in the cool shade and moderate 

 temperature of that place, it had become quite solid, and formed a 

 small cake ; it became soft when kept some time in the hand, if placed 

 in the sun for five minutes ; but when restored to a cool place it 

 became solid again in a quarter of an hour. In the season at which 

 the Arabs gather it, it never acquires that degree of hardness which 

 allows of it being pounded, as the Israelites are said to have done 

 (Numb. xi. 8.) The colour is dirty yellow, and the piece which I saw 

 was still mixed with the tamarisk leaves ; its taste is agreeable, some- 

 what aromatic, and as sweet as honey." 



This mann, or manna, which was said to drop from the Tamarix 

 mannifera, was said by some not to exude from the tree, but to be 



